Building structure



Nov. 21, 1961 R. HANSEN ETAL 3,009,211

BUILDING STRUCTURE I Filed April 20, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Witness 7 A9 A22 Porn 2 'Nov. 21, 1961 L. R. HANSEN ETAL 3,009,211

BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed April 20, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 flnvenbors flea Q. Hausa: 4

dlbnl LFWOI f Patented Nov. 21, 1961 3,009,211 BUILDING STRUCTURE Leo R. Hansen, Audubon, Iowa, and Albert L. Wolf, Exira, Iowa Filed Apr. 20, 1959, Ser. No. 807,487 4 Claims. (Cl. 201.13)

This invention relates to a building structure and more particularly to a relatively small building such as a chicken house, hog house, or like, and one that may be manually elevated for cleaning, inspection, placement of objects, arrangement of same, or removal of objects therefrom.

There are many small buildings for housing domestic animals, fowls, and even implements and tools. One of the chief problems is the cleaning of the floor of the building. This task is especially made diflicult not only by the one entrance doorway, but by the low ceiling, quite often prevent-ing the workman from standing erect during the cleaning phase. Also, it is 'diflioult to get certain items or objects into or out of the building.

Therefore, one of the principal objects of our invention is to provide a small building structure that is so fabricated that it may easily and quickly be manually swung upwardly to expose its flooring or lowered into an effective position on its floor base.

A further object of this invention is to provide a small building that permits the placement therein or removal therefrom of objects or equipment substantially larger than its door opening.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a building that is so constructed as to permit the easy cleaning of its floor surface.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a building for animals and fowls that is most sanitary.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a building structure that is easily fabricated and assembled.

Still further objects of our invention are to provide a building structure that is durable in use, economical in manufacture, and refined in appearance.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Our invention consists in the construction, arrangements, and combination, of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth, specifically pointed out in our claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of our building swung upwardly to expose its floor portion,

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross sectional view of portions of the building and more fully illustrates its construction,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged inside plan view of the spring loaded counterbalance means for facilitating the manually raising of the housing portion from the floor portion,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view of the spring loaded counterbalance means taken at a ninety degree angle from that of its showing in FIG. 3, and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the counterbalance means taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

Our building may be either permanently erected on the ground or it may have its floor beams or joists 11 in the form of sled runners so that it may be skidded to different desired locations. This is especially desirable if it is to be used as either a chicken or hog house. The building may be of single or double flooring and in the drawings we have shown a lower flooring 12 and a floor surface 13 above it. These floors are secured to the supporting beams 11. The house portion 15 that normally covers the floor portion may be of any suitable design providing its rectangular bottom rim conforms with and to the rectangular floor portion as shown in FIG. 2. In the drawings we show the housing portion 15 of the tension of the spring may be adjusted by quonset type having a curved top 16 extending from one side bottom to the other side bottom and having flat ends 17 and 19. The end 19 has a doorway 20' and at least one vertical bar 21 adjacent the door opening. Secured in spaced relationship to the right lower side of the house portion is a horizontal rod pipe bar 22 for bracing and for use as a hand hold for raising or lowering the house portion relative to the floor portion. The numeral 23 designates a horizontal rod pipe shaft or bar at the lower left side of the house portion. The numeral 25 designates a plurality of strap bars extending from between the two flooring portions 12 and 13, and each having its outer end portion bent to extend around the shaft 23, and thereby form a bearing around the shaft 2 3. The numeral 26 designates a plurality of strap bars secured to the inner left side of the housing and each having its lower portion bent first outwardly and then around the shaft 23, thus forming a bearing rotatably embracing the shaft 23 as shown in FIG. 1. By this arrangement of parts the right side of the housing may be swung up away from the flooring and the left side of the housing will pivot on the shaft 23 to which it is operatively hinged. The problem of course is to lift the right side of the housing to expose the floor as shown in FIG. 1. We make this possible by a counterweight balance means which I will now describe in detail.

On the brace 21 we bolt a bearing plate 27. Secured to this plate is a bolt shaft means 29. The numeral 30 designates a sleeve having a transversely arranged bearing member 31 rotatably embracing the bolt shaft means 29. The numeral 32 designates a pipe standard longitudinally slidably extending through the sleeve 30". The numeral 33 designates a plate on the floor 13 having a short post 35 detachably extending into the lower end of the pipe standard 32. When the housing is in lowered position on the flooring the pipe standard will be substantially vertical and parallel with the brace 21 as shown in FIG. 3. The numeral 36 designates a rod having its lower portion extending into the upper end portion of the pipe standard and its upper end bent first laterally and then upwardly to form a hook 37. The numeral 39 designates a coil spring having one end hooked over the hook 37 and its other end secured to the lower portion of the housing end 19. This spring is under tension and its lowered end is yieldingly pulling upwardly on the housing portion. The

slidably adjusting the rod 36 in the upper end portion of the pipe standard. We show a plurality of holes 40 in the upper end portion of the pipe standard adapted to be selectively engaged by a pin 41 for adjustably limiting the downward movement of the rod B6 into the pipe standard. We recommend that the strength action of the spring be such that it will only take about a forty pound pull upwardly on the right side of the housing to swing it upwardly to a position such as shown in FIG. 1. As the housing swings upwardly and laterally the pipe standard, sleeve and associated parts will move to a canted position and without binding. The sleeve will automatically slide upwardly on the pipe standard and the lower end of the pipe standard will be yieldingly held onto the post pin 35 by the downward pull of the upper end of the spring. With the housing portion elevated the flooring will be exposed for cleaning or for placement of objects upon it or for the removal of objects. Animal separation means may be installed on or removed from the flooring. Large equipment may be placed on the floor or removed therefrom. After this has been accomplished the housing portion is easily and quickly manually lowered by virtue of the action of the spring and its co-acting associated elements. If desired, a detachable prop bar 45 may be used as shown in FIG. 1, to hold the housing in an elevated position until such time as it is desired to lower it.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of our building structure without departing from the real spirit and purpose of our invention, and it is our intention to cover by our claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

We claim:

1. In a building, a floor portion, a housing having a door, a means hingedly securing one lower side of said housing to said floor portion, a bearing plate secured to the end wall of said housing, a shaft on said bearing plate, a bearing member rotatably mounted on said shaft, a sleeve secured to said bearing member, a shaft standard slidably extending through said sleeve and having its lower end operatively bearing onto said floor portion, and a coil spring having its upper end operatively connected to the upper end of said shaft standard and its lower end secured to the end wall of said housing.

2. In a building, a floor portion, a housing having a door, a means hingedly securing one lower side of said housing to said floor portion, a bearing plate secured to the end wall of said housing, a shaft on said bearing plate, a bearing member rotatably mounted on said shaft, a sleeve secured to said bearing member, a shaft standard slidably extending through said sleeve and having its lower end operatively bearing onto said floor portion, means for preventing lateral movement of the lower end of said shaft standard relative to said floor portion, and a coil spring having its upper end operatively connected to the upper end of said shaft standard and its lower end operatively secured to the end wall of said housing.

3. In a building, a floor portion, a housing having a door, a means hingedly securing one lower side of said housing to said floor portion, a bearing plate secured to the end wall of said housing, a shaft on said bearing plate,

a bearing member rotatably mounted on said shaft, a sleeve secured to said bearing member, a shaft standard slidably extending through said sleeve and having its lower end operatively bearing onto said floor portion, and a tension adjustable coil spring having its upper end operatively connected to the upper end of said shaft standard and its lower end operatively secured to the end wall of said housing.

4. In a building, a floor portion, a housing having a door, a means hingedly securing one lower side of said housing to said fio-or portion, a bearing plate operatively secured to the end wall of said housing, a shaft on said bearing plate, a bearing member rotatably mounted on said shaft, a sleeve secured to said bearing member, a shaft standard slidably extending through said sleeve and having its lower end operatively bearing onto said floor portion, a coil spring having its upper end operatively connected to the upper end of said shaft standard and its lower end operatively secured to the end wall of said housing, and a handle member on said housing to facilitate the manual lifting of one of its sides.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,018,887 Fowler Oct. 20, 1935 2,030,776 Vance Feb. 11, 1936 2,695,716 Graham Nov. 30, 1954 2,742,674 Melder Apr. 24, 1956 2,853,745 Gipslis Sept. 30, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 291,131 Switzerland Sept. 1, 1953 

